1.1 Introduction
Black pepper (Piper nigrum L) is a perennial climbing vine belonging to the family Piperaceae. Berries of this crop are widely used globally as spices and condiments. It is known as the King of spices is widely used in the seasoning of foods in cuisines worldwide. It has a strong aroma and high medicinal value. It is native to south India which is Malabar coastal in the state of Kerala. Black pepper occupied 35% of the world’s trade of spices. USA, Germany, and Netherlands are the major importers of black pepper. Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Brazil, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and China are the major exporters of black pepper in the world. Among these Sri Lankan black pepper has tremendous demand in the world market due to high piperine content.
1.2 History of pepper
Pepper is an important spice not only currently but also in ancient times too. It is native to the western ghats of South India (Malabar coastal area) and the wetter part of Sri Lanka (A.P.Heenkende, 2011). The history of pepper is, in fact, the history of the spice trade. In ancient times black pepper use instead of money. Even peppercorns are used for paying for dowries, taxes, and rents. Pepper has been at the heart of the European spice trade since the Middle Ages, with Genoa and Venice, and Alexandria dominating the market. Cosmos Indicopleustes described well about Malabar harvest and post-harvest practices in Topographia Christiana after a visit to India and Sri Lanka (Charles, 2013).
In 1948 sea route for the spices land of Malabar was found by Vasco de Gama’s. After 1948 spice trade was occupied by Portugal. In 1605 Dutch overtaken the Portugal in the spice trade. Holland gradually gained control of the pepper-producing centers near Lampong, Sumatra, and Banten, Java. While 19th-century pepper production was increased and the price of pepper reduces and it became affordable by most of the people after emerged of London as spice land (Charles, 2013).
1.3 Black pepper cultivation in Sri Lanka
1.3.1 Cultivation extend
In Sri Lanka black pepper is mainly growing agro-ecological zones are the mid and low country in the wet and intermediate zone. The major districts which are involving pepper cultivation are Matale, Kandy, Kegalle, Badulla, Ratnapura, Kurunegala, and Monaragala. Pepper is cultivated in Sri Lanka in approximately 44,450ha of land area in 2015(Gunaratne et al., 2011).
1.3.2 Varieties that are grown in Sri Lanka
In Sri Lanka commercially cultivate varieties are Panniyur-1 from India, Kuchin from Malaysia, and MB12 & GK 49 are location selections that have superior quality and high yielding. Recently Department of Export Agriculture has introduced three hybrids as Dingi Rala, Kohukumbure Rala, and Bootawe Rala.
1.3.3 Crop cultivation
Pepper can be grown using seeds as well as the vegetative propagation method. Stem cutting is the vegetative part that uses for pepper propagation. Typically, pepper can be propagated by the vegetative method in Sri Lanka. Pepper cultivate in Sri Lanka as monocrop as well as an intercrop with coconut or other spices like coffee or cocoa. Recommended spacing is the following for both methods. Commonly Gliricidia sepium uses as live support. Dead support use rarely. In Sri Lanka fertilizer apply in a mixture form but other pepper growing countries practice applying a complex form of fertilizer. Normally green manure, cattle manure, and poultry manure application also practice incorporating with inorganic fertilizer (A.P.Heenkende, 2011).
1.3.4 Harvest and post-harvest practices in Sri Lanka
Pepper spikes normally harvest when 7-8 months old. Harvested spikes undergo a threshing process manually or using a mechanical thresher to separate the berries from the spike. After berries allow for blanching in hot water for 3minutes. Then they allow for drying under the sun for 4-6 days. Blanching is a practice to reduce the drying time by 2 to 3 days
For the white pepper production pepper spike allow ripening in the tree. Fully ripened pepper immersed in water for 5 to 6 days to remove seed coat then seed coat removes by rubbing on a wire mesh(Pepper – Dept, n.d.; Thibbotuwawa, M., Wijayasiri, J., Hirimuthugodage, 2017).
1.4 Pepper grading
(Pepper – Dept, n.d.)
| Criteria | Sp. Grade I | Grade I | FAQ |
| Moldy berries % | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Other extraneous matter %( insects live or dead, stones, sand, plant parts, mammalian fecal matter, etc.) | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Light berries % | Max. 4 | Max. 4 | Max. 10 |
| Moisture % | 12 | 14 | 14 |
| Appearance | Dark black color with surface grooves | Dark black to brownish-black color with surface grooves |
1.5 Ceylon pepper in the global market and its value chain
Ceylon pepper has good demand in the global market due to its rich pipperine content. Sri Lanka ranks 5th and 7th global level in the land under pepper production and export of pepper production respectively(Thibbotuwawa, M., Wijayasiri, J., Hirimuthugodage, 2017). Sri Lanka exporting pepper as black pepper, white pepper, and crushed pepper powder. Compare to white pepper black pepper production is high in Sri Lanka but the market price of white pepper is higher than black pepper.
Three major groups involving this pepper value chain such as producers, intermediates, and exporters. Farmers are the producers. Some farmers also do the processing on the other hand some are not doing the processing. They sell their product to collectors/ wholesalers. Wholesaler and collectors send their products to the processor or exporter. Some collectors are practicing processing. when those peppers are ready to sell in the market they can be sell to the local market as well as the export market. Collectors also can directly transport to the local market. Normally wholesalers buy all the pepper but they determine the price according to the quality of the pepper. Because in the pepper market buyers expecting quality as well as viability. In the sense of quality, they focus on the moisture content of pepper, bulk density, and oil content, and standard grades (Asian Development Bank, 2017; Thibbotuwawa, M., Wijayasiri, J., Hirimuthugodage, 2017).
1.6 Why improvement of pepper production is needed in Sri Lanka?
Pepper is a spice that has high demand in the global market. Especially Ceylon pepper has a unique demand in the market due to the chemical composition and the quality of the spices.
Sri Lanka is one of the traditional pepper producers but they don’t have significant productivity(Nair, 2020)
Compare to other Asian countries in Sri Lanka pepper productivity is very low. Other countries producing more than 1000kg/ha but Sri Lanka only produces half of the others(Krishnamurthy et al., 2010).
1.7 How to improve pepper production and value chain in Sri Lanka?
Most of the pepper production occurs in small levels nearly less than 1ha land area as intercropping or mixed with a home garden. So the application of fertilizer is very less or no fertilizer applied. So that production is low. So farmers have to guide properly to improve their productivity.
Most of the farmers not doing processing so they only get few amounts of money for their product due to lack of quality. So farmers have to guide processing and responsible people have to take any action to facilitate the processing at the farmer level.
Farmers don’t aware of the export market price and international trading and also they don’t have a direct relationship with exporters. The intermediators’ influence is high so that cut down the intermediates in the value chain is necessary.
Compare to black pepper white pepper price in the global market is high and when value-adding a product it has higher market value so that Sri Lanka industries have to concern about the production of value-added products based on pepper(Asian Development Bank, 2017).
1.8 References
A.P.Heenkende, W. D. L. G. and H. A. S. D. (2011). Strategies for Integrated Soil and Plant Nutrient Management in Pepper.
Asian Development Bank. (2017). Value Chain analysis of key F & V products in Sri Lanka. July, 1–36.
Charles, D. J. (2013). black pepper. In Antioxidant properties of spices, herbs and other sources (Vol. 9781461443, pp. 1–610). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-4310-0
Gunaratne, W. D. L., Agriculture, E., & Lanka, S. R. I. (2011). COUNTRY PAPPER ON PEPPER PRODUCTION , PROCESSING AND TRADE FOR THE 42 nd PEPPER EXPORTERS MEETING. 135–149.
Krishnamurthy, K. S., Parthasarathy, V. A., Saji, K. V, & Krishnamoorthy, B. (2010). Ideotype concept in black pepper (Piper nigrum L.). Journal of Spices and Aromatic Crops, 19(1/2), 1–13.
Mokshapathy, S. (2017). Production and Export Performance of Black Pepper Production and Export Performance of Black Pepper. 2(October), 36–44.
Nair, K. P. (2020). The Geography of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum). In The Geography of Black Pepper (Piper nigrum) (Vol. 1). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52865-2
Pepper – Dept. (n.d.). Department of Export Agriculture,Sri Lanka. http://www.dea.gov.lk/pepper/
Thibbotuwawa, M., Wijayasiri, J., Hirimuthugodage, D. (2017). Analysis of cinnamon, peper and cardamom value chains in Sri Lanka. In Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) (Issue December 2018). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329800013_ANALYSIS_OF_CINNAMON_PEPPER_AND_CARDAMOM_VALUE_CHAINS_IN_SRI_LANKA/stats